Results Work! I have been on the My Fitness Solution nutrition plan for a month. I have lost 6 pounds since September 1. That is 6 pounds in 25 days. Yesterday I got Tracy Carswell, my trainer to measure me, and I am really pleased with the inches that have disappeared too! I have lost 2 1/2 inches in my waist. This loss has been since I started strength training in July.This is loss on a woman whose metabolism is slowing down. This is on a woman who hated waking up and getting out of bed in the mornings to a person who jumps out of bed and starts doing push ups. I have changed. I have learned so much about managing my body with nutrition and exercise since I started. What I have learned is practical, real information that will empower me to make better, more informed, executive decisions about fueling and exercising my body for life.

I have been an avid fitness person for my entire life, but I was unable to connect the dots to achieve the level of fitness that I wanted without a trainer. I needed a trainer and guidance to lead me to make better more effective choices. I was one of those people who was swayed by all of the diet- how- tos that bombard us daily in the media. I have been coached, pushed and encouraged by Fadi and Tracy at My Fitness Solution. Tracy has really taken an interest in seeing me succeed. He has been ready and forth coming with guidance on nutrition. He has been the missing link in my fitness program. He has given me what I could not have gotten out of magazines alone.

There are lots of programs and encouragement that are offered at MFS. Fadi Malouf has designed a program where you can achieve your fitness goals with support. There are 1 on 1 training appointments, boot camp, nutrition classes, accountability coaches, internet based and customized nutrition plans, and even grocery shopping excursions. There are social opportunities and genuine concern for your health. There are instructions and coaching in managing your life and gaining traction to achieve what you have always known that you had the potential to do. It is really a complete facility to nurture you in your attainment of success.

I am stronger every day. I am seeing results! You can’t argue with success!

I have been using the nutrition program, from My Fitness Solutions, for two weeks now. I am learning so much. I would not ever call this a diet. It is a nutrition program. I am learning every day. I am eating 6 meals a day. Every thing is planned out for me. All I have to do is cook and eat it. It is authentic and nutritious foods. There is also an exercise plan that accompanies it. I have found new foods that I didn’t know that I liked. I have lost a quick 5.9 pounds! My husband has shed even more. My son says that you can’t get fat at our house even if you want. We only have healthy choices at our house now. It has changed everything.

We are all feeling stronger and healthier. We have more energy and stamina to help us throughout the day. We are getting wiser about food choices. I have really started looking at the foods that I have eaten and served. I am really seeking what is healthy. Tracy Carswell is a genius at this. He seems to know all the ins and outs of foods. I was thinking today about foods. One thing I have to do on this diet is add good fats with each meal. This has meant that I have had to add avocados, almond or peanut butter, or olive oil to different meals. Then I started thinking about the standards of food-the ever famous peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This should really be renamed the fat and sugar sandwich! Although I must admit that I have eaten more than my share of these over the years.

As I am caught up in my own search and learning adventure for what is healthy and what acurrately fuels the body, I am aware of the foods around me that others are eating. I am trying hard to keep my suggestions to myself now that I have seen the nutrition light. Then because my thoughts are lately dominated by fitness and healthy nutrition, of course life throws me an opportunity. A mother of a student with whom I work suggested that potato chips were healthy because they are made from potatoes. They were potatoes. I almost choked on my all natural smoothie. Potato chips are not healthy foods.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “When I know better, I do better.” I am now on the curve of learning to do better nutritionally. It is just the beginning. It is a commitment for life. Jack LaLanne, the famous health innovator said, “Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you have a kingdom.” It is all about trying to be better today than I was yesterday. Living better and learning more. The plan is available on-line to anyone, anywhere. It really works and is easy to manage. It is designed so all the work has been done for you. It really makes it convenient.

I recently heard a friend say,”I want to finally lose 50 pounds for my 50th birthday. ” When you really want to lose it or you know someone who has dealt with a weight issue, or if you want to finally lose that last 10 pounds here is the way to do it. It is just straight, honest, science that can be easily done in your kitchen. I have spent so much money over the years buying diet meals that didn’t work and starving,(that definitely didn’t work). I just want my friends to realize that here is the answer when you are really ready.

Enjoy the weekend! Watch watch out for what you are really eating and serving! Love those people in your life so much that you will begin to make the healthy choices for them. Give them the fuel that it takes to live a long, healthy, vital life. Now you know better!

I am changing, and it feels really good! I have been working out extremely hard since this summer. For the first time in my life I am lifting weights. I have now added the next element, the My Fitness Solutions nutrition plan. I have been on it for 2 days. There is so much food! I am having trouble getting all the meals in during the day. It is a much larger amount of food than I eat normally. I do not understand the science behind it, but I’m eating more, and I am losing weight! Mother Nature is preaching to me every minute that I can’t lose weight because I am too old, but the nutrition plan is working! I am eating real, nutritional food. There is nothing prepackaged or in a box.

The nutrition plan is loaded with exactly what to eat. I couldn’t believe it when I viewed the plan. If I hadn’t even been going to the gym, there is a complete nutrition plan that is customized for you with the exercises that you need to do each day. You could do the whole thing at your house and your grocery store! I had no idea that the plan was so complete. You go on-line, type in your goals and some things about yourself and in a few minutes you are sent your customized plan. I waited to do it because I was sure that it wouldn’t work for me. I am pleasantly surprised! Yippee! After 40, those scales just don’t want to cooperate with me, no matter what I do. I really thought I was hopeless.

I have been doing a plethora of reading trying to educate myself on health, fitness and aging. We don’t have to be old, sick and overweight. We can live strong and vital lives, but we have to take charge! Working out with Tracy and Fadi has been so important to me in this quest. It is not a diet plan. It is not a quick, gimmick, weight loss plan. It is intelligent education on how to choose activities and food for a healthy, long life. My shopping cart looks so much different. I am thinking differently about how I spend my money, time, and how I eat. There is so much support available from the trainers and other members. I can’t figure out how it seems that great people have all taken to this place. I keep meeting the most awesome people who are embracing the opportunity to change their lives at My Fitness Solutions.

People who use My Fitness Solutions are different. They are there to become educated. They are there to change their lives. It is really an amazing place! I actually feel blessed to be able to train there. It is life changing!

Have a great week! If you want to finally change your life and get rid of those pounds here is the real way to do it. Just click and begin to lose. You could be half the person you are by Christmas or sooner! I have got my eye on a couple of new outfits! I am working toward them! No need to buy a size that is too big! Fadi told me I could get Skinny Jeans if I met my goal. Get ready to ante up, Fadi!

As you know I have been diligently engaged in trying to learn about fitness and nutrition. For the first time in my active, athletic life I have started strength training. I did not know anything about strength training. I started at zero with guidance by Tracy Carswell at My Fitness Solutions. I started losing weight quickly, then as I continued to work with the weights I started gaining weight. I got so discouraged. I didn’t know if it was fat I was adding or lean muscle mass.

I was thrilled when I read Dr. Oz encourage his readers to go by their waist size and not their weight because weight changes so frequently but for a variety of reasons. This gave me hope. We do know that women that have a waist size of larger than 32.5 to 35 inches, measured just below their belly button have an increased incidence of some type of cancers. This was one thing I was working to avoid.

I felt sure that this way of keeping up with my progress was going to be magic. I would have a solid number that I could monitor my losses. I quickly grabbed a measuring tape. I measured my waist. It had expanded by 2 inches! I was horrified! I had been working so hard. Now my weight was up, and my waist had expanded! I considered giving up, but I knew that I was doing everything just as I had been told and working really hard in the gym. I just decided to keep at it. Although for a brief moment I did consider eating an entire cake and grabbing a gallon of Haagen Daaz. (I figured that it had gotten me through a heartbreak earlier in life, I could probably count on it again.)

Then it happened. I realized that I was hormonal. For a week I was heavier and had gained 2 inches in my waist! That is so unfair. Women have to consider hormones when they are working on fitness. It really does affect all parts of your body and brain! I was shocked that I could gain 2 inches in my waist as I am not usually living by a measuring tape.

For the past 8 weeks I have been working out at My Fitness Solutions in Duluth. I have seen weight loss, and I am beginning to see some definition in my body. I am finally realizing the fitness goals that I have not been able to achieve by myself!

I can tell a difference in my posture and energy level. I am meeting 3 times a week with my trainer, Tracy Carswell. My next adventure into the world of fitness begins this week. Nutrition. According to Fadi, the director of My Fitness Solutions, “Nutrition is 80% of the program.” But what am I supposed to eat?

In the past, I have tried eating cabbage soup, Cambridge shakes, Slim Fast Shakes, Adkins, all fruit, no carbs, all veges, low carbs, leave off the salt, drink water and all things in between. At the end of a few weeks I am weak, shaky, craving something and then gain more weight back than when I started.

I am interested in building lean muscle mass. I don’t need to lose large amounts of weight, but I want to give my body the healthy fuel that it needs to meet the demands of what I do in my daily life and when I work out. I want to eat the foods that will encourage my body to get stronger even as I get older. So far, Fadi and Tracy have been making suggestions and guiding me to make better nutritional choices. I have followed their suggestions and incorporated them into my eating. Now I am about to take the plunge and begin the full nutritional program.

The program that is offered is based on science. That is it. No gimmicks. No special foods that I have to buy that I can’t find at my regular store. Fadi has an on-line nutritional plan that is customized to each individual. You fill in your own information and goals. The information is calculated, and you are then given a daily diet plan specifically for you. I will start mine on Thursday. I am planning to watch what happens over the month of September. I am expecting to see continued success. (Stay posted and let’s see what I have to eat. I have looked at a sample and the sample has me actually eating more than I eat now.)

This service is available if you go to the gym or not. It can be done in the convenience of your home without interference or embarrassment. There are no gimmicks. It is totally amazing that I have access to trainers that work with athletes and others that make their living having a “body.” (Did I mention that both of these guys have body fat of less than 9% and have maintained this for years? It is enough to make me not like them, but they are eager to show me how I can do it too! So that makes me love them more.)

I am a regular gal, an older gal, a teacher that is able to get excellent, customized nutritional and fitness information. I have already learned so many nutritional tricks. I am now reading and researching nutrition and fitness in my free time. It is edifying to read and see that the information that I am being taught is correct and results oriented for permanent weight and body management. Under their instruction it looks like life gets better as I get older! That is the goal. Stronger, better, leaner, wiser and older! Let’s hear it for the old girls!

I have been working out with a trainer for about 6 weeks. I am getting impatient with myself. I am showing up and working hard. I want results, but I want them yesterday. I am so glad that I have my trainers at My Fitness Solutions to keep me motivated. When I went in on Friday I was feeling kicked around because my husband has just started and he has lost 14 pounds in 10 days. I have gained a pound. But my weight is still under what I could get it to working out all by myself at the gym and running hundreds of miles at the park. My trainer, Tracy, told me we have to move the bar a bit. I am going to have to work even harder.

My friend, Dom, who works out at the same time, told me to realize that now I was building lean muscle mass and building muscle mass is what I am going after. I got home and was reading in my fitness magazine that building muscle mass takes time. It seems that real differences can be seen in women in about 3 months. Men can see a difference more quickly because of all that testosterone. Well, I don’t want to grow a beard so I will keep working out.

I went in and worked out hard. There is a new assistant at the gym. He stayed with me and threw the ball to me while I did inverted crunches. He spotted me while I did my Arnold’s. He was there to help me with my curls. He kept telling me, “You got it. One more.” He and I laughed and somehow made the torture quite fun! I felt really energized after I had pushed my muscles until failure. I realized that going through this makes me stronger. I am going for strong.

I have a friend that has just lost well over 100 pounds using diet alone. After she lost all this weight she had to invest thousands to have surgery to have her skin tightened. That is painful, invasive, scarring and expensive. I am doing this one work out at a time and looking forward to the results. I want to go into my fifties stronger than I have ever been. Every day I get closer! I have to remember that it takes time.

LaLanne, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 96, spent two hours a day exercising. “This is where I take care of the most important person in my life: me,” he jokes. “Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you’ve got a kingdom.” Keeping up with a weight lifting, cardiovascular and diet plan until he died, LaLanne believed in treating his body with the utmost respect.

From Kim:

Great article! Treat yourself to reading the whole article! This is what keeps me active. We are going to be here a long, long time. We want to be healthy the whole time. My friend’s 94-year-old grandmother just died. She told my friend just a few weeks before her death while walking around at the lake, “I want to be alive until the day I die. Here today and gone tomorrow.” What a great tribute to life!

I love LaLanne’s quote, “Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you’ve got a kingdom.” Brilliant! This was a life well lived. The article states that he exercised 2 hours a day to take care of the most important person, himself.

Making these rewarding little choices every day, add up to a better longer life! All it takes is making a choice to get active and then just go do it! Get moving. Make your life better!

When I read the advantages of strength training I wonder why I have wasted so much time NOT strength training. The results of strength training for women are quickly visible. It is like the body yearns to get stronger. It is a hidden desire lying wait while I watch movies and make excuses. But then when I give it the chance my body welcomes the workout.

The Mayo Clinic confirms my thoughts. The Mayo Clinic points out that the reasons for women to begin pushing weights are numerous. Just a little time in the gym has huge pay offs. It doesn’t even take as long as distance running and the benefits out weigh all that sweaty cardio. (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/strength-training/HQ01710)

Did you know that strength training diminishes the signs of back problems, arthritis, depression, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis? If it does all that why aren’t women lifting? Why aren’t they getting with a trainer today? Strength training also boost your stamina. Who doesn’t want to have more energy? Women have too much to do not to be strong. Women are too busy to be sick and unhealthy.

On Saturday, as I was finishing the run part of a triathlon, I ran by a woman sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette. She was morbidly obese. She and I shared a smile and a hello as I ran past her apartment complex. I was so saddened to see her. I am sure that she was about my age. I realized that for some reason she had given up and was sitting. Her sitting was causing her to end her life slowly. Women can’t do this. We have to grab life and go! We have to engage our bodies in the activities like strength training that makes life healthier and us stronger.

I have just started lifting weights. I have been attempting to do it on my own at my gym for a while. It is intimidating to try at go over to the “men’s side” and ask questions, not to mention pick up the little weights. I was trying on my own but I wasn’t getting results, however with my trainer, at My Fitness Solutions the guess-work has been taken out of it. I go in and get a great workout and see results quickly. I have support and someone else has to figure out what I am supposed to be doing. I am not afraid to ask questions at MFS. They want to be the expert. They are there for me. They want to help me get stronger!

Too many health benefits are available to women not to lift weights! Grab some weights, girls and get started!

Welcome to Day 1 of my fitness blog! I am a young woman, well, in heart and spirit anyway. I am getting closer to 50, and I am fighting the tide that is trying to pull me in to being old. I have been a runner for years, but I have never attained the level of fitness that I have desired. I work full time and go to graduate school too! I have a husband, 2 sons, 2 dogs, and lots of housecleaning and laundry to do. I have responsiblities in my extended family as well. What I am trying to say is that this is not going to be easy. Oh, did I mention that I have Meneire’s Disease as well? If I can do this, then you can too. I don’t have extra “time.” I have 2 boys in college, so I don’t have extra “money” either. I know that excuses get you no where. I am going for it. Go with me!

My 21-year-old son has been working with Fadi Malouf at My Fitness Solutions for a few months. His life has changed. His body is becoming a work of art. How could this be? He is getting better and stronger, and I am still carrying the tummy that was stretched out during pregnancy 21 years ago? I can no longer excuse my abs by talking about pregnancy!

My son, Michael suggested that I go to My Fitness Solutions for an evaluation. I went about a month ago. I met Fadi and he evaluated my fitness level. He told me that if I came in and committed to the program that I would see a difference in about 60 days. That excited me! .

In the past month, I went about 3 times and worked with Rebecca, a trainer at My Fitness Solutions. In that short time my body began to react to the training. I could see slight diffrences. Then I was off on vacation and I missed the training.

So now I am back from vacation and starting to work out again and wanting to see if this really works. Join me in my adventure to see if I can get my groove back. I want to gain strength and definition in 60 days. I have visions of abs like Dara Torres. Let’s see what happens. Is it really possible for me to get my groove back?